Open Thread: Twins 7, Tigers 0

by Jesse on Jul 2, 2008 7:14 PM EDT in Game Recaps

Twins stay hot!

Another great game thread today, thanks to those who participated. I wasn't able to catch the last three innings, but most of the action was over by that point anyway.

I know they do "3 Stars" for Twins radio broadcasts after the games, and so I'll rip them off this afternoon to point out a few things about what I saw.

Star 3: Nick Punto. Punto's play to end the top of the third inning was sick. With runners on the corners and two away, Polanco hit a speedy grouder back up the middle, just to the left-field side of second base. With Curtis Granderson and Alexi Casilla in a sprint for the bag, Punto dove and did the only thing he could to get the ball to Casilla in time: flick it with his glove. He might have been trying to actually flip the ball, but in any event what he managed to do was roll it. Casilla's momentum carried him over the bag, but he gloved the ball and managed to keep his foot on the base just long enough to record the out and put another zero on the scoreboard for Blackburn.

Star 2: Joe Mauer. I know it's not true, but he seems to always get on base multiple times a game. This afternoon he was 2-for-4 with a walk, and opened the scoring for Minnesota in the bottom of the third by scoring both Span and Gomez on a single.

Star 1: Nick Blackburn. Nick went seven innings and shut down the Tigers, allowing only a trio of hits (all singles) while striking out four and walking just one. After getting touched a bit his last time out, it was nice to see him bounce back for one of his strongest performances of the season. It constitutes Blackburn's 10th quality start of the summer.

Anyone else have anything to add? Also, in case you missed it, I posted my American League All-Star selections this morning. Does it match your ballot?

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Star #4

I think this would belong to the Rabbits: Gomez (3-5) Casilla (1-4) Span (1-4 2 RS) and to a certain sense Punto (2-3)

Star #5 would belong to Delmon Young. He is putting together a nice string of hits now and is almost at the elusive .290 mark on the season. If he keeps this up, he will be the .300 hitter that we traded for…plus 2 of his three hits were doubles, so it appears as though his XBH are rising too!

Star #6: Whole Twins team, coaching staff, front office, everybody…. we have a nice streak going here having won 12 out of 14 games…. lets keep it up! Pitching staff keep on hurling darts. Offense keep the flaming bats…(whose for buying a bunch of pink bats?) and Bullpen and Defense…keep up the show!

by 33MorneauMVP on Jul 2, 2008 8:37 PM EDT 0 recs

Delmon Young

Since his infamous streak ended on May 29th Young has been hitting great.

May 30th to June 2nd

.337/ .359/  .472   with 10 doubles and 2 homers over 101 at bats.    The only negative was that he stopped getting the walks that he was getting in May.  However, I'll take a guy that never walks and hits like this compared to what we got the first 2 months of the season.    Perhaps he's a guy who just needs time off to recharge.  He's been getting plenty of breaks with Kubel hitting well and us playing the NL.  Hopefully the Twins will decide to keep Span up and have him give both Young and Gomez breathers as needed.

Peyton's good but have you ever heard of Jeff George?

by halfchest on Jul 3, 2008 1:27 AM EDT up 0 recs

bonus star

bonus star to the Twins Fans. I was looking at the box score and glanced at todays attendance: 30,102

!!!

pretty damned good for a Wednesday noon start when it was gorgeous outside

by DedicatedFollowerOfFashion on Jul 2, 2008 8:46 PM EDT 0 recs

Didn't see it but

no love for DY today?

by TMW on Jul 2, 2008 9:05 PM EDT 0 recs

He had a great game...

Three hits, a pair of doubles…and looking at what halfchest put above (although I think he meant July 2nd), he’s been continuing is improved ways at the plate for well over a month. He could still learn to take a walk or two, but when you can hit like he has over this stretch it doesn’t matter much.

by Jesse on Jul 3, 2008 8:26 AM EDT up 0 recs

They're sucking me in again...

I swore after Knobby, steroids, and a taxpayer funded stadium during a time with 2 wars I’d never watch another baseball game, but being an East Bloomington kid who batted left and threw right and who saw his first game at the Met before playing 1st at Kent Hrbek field, and being pretty sure that the Twinkies are the most steroid-proof team in baseball…well, I’ve caught myself watching about 1-2 games a week now.

This is the best I’ve seen them play in a while and I’m glad to see that a major league team has embraced an athletic approach in the (hopefully) post-steroid era and I love seeing a bunch of singles-hitting sprinters run around the bases. I know there’s more to their success than that, but it is fun to watch for a guy who would much rather catch a basketball game at the Y than MLB since my first love broke my heart with big contracts and drugs.

I just may have to pull out the framed Homer Hanky with the ‘87 tickets and put it back up in the man cave.

The World's Leading Exporter of Small Area Quickness
www.canishoopus.com

by Stop-n-Pop on Jul 3, 2008 2:18 AM EDT 1 recs